Ninja Hero Cats Review

Ninja Hero Cats mixes two of the most popular things on the internet, Ninja and Cats. How could it go wrong?

Ninja Hero Cats has a very simple Angry Birds type story. A group of cats who just happen to be ninjas are about to enjoy a meal when suddenly a tentacled mass appears out of the floor and steals it. The cats jump into the strange portal left behind to retrieve their food and an epic battle against hundreds of hostile creatures ensures!

Ninja Hero Cats has some very simple controls and indeed very simple gameplay. Players simply drag their finger around to screen to guide their fearless squad of cat killers around the screen and attacking is automatic when the cats get close enough to an enemy.

Being ninja, the cats have access to ranged attacks such as ninja stars and close range attacks with their katatanas. Depending on their proximity to the enemies one or the other is used. Both are upgradeable by collecting goldfish, the game’s currency.

Ninja Hero Cats has plenty of action and there are a lot of enemies to fight. But the overly simplistic gameplay isn’t all that fascinating.

If a cat is killed, it can be revived later on in the level with a certain powerup, but losing all your cats kicks the player all the way back to level 1. Seeming as each level is a few minutes long and the game saves level progress it seems strange to be kicked all the way back to level one, usually losing hours and hours of progress. It would make a lot more sense to simply have to restart the level reached rather than the entire game all over again.

At least getting killed doesn’t remove purchased powerups. By collecting goldfish which are often dropped in each level many upgrades for your cats can be bought, from basic attack damage boosts to whole new attacks, like a fire trail to burn enemies and lighting attacks.

Ninja Hero Cats looks very average. While it animates smoothly, characters are very small and animation is very limited. The sound is OK and there are cute little meows as the cats fight and plenty of sound cues, which is useful since the graphics are so indistinct.

A major problem with the game is a huge, constantly flashing banner ad that sits at the top of the screen during gameplay, wasting a chunk of the phone’s real estate on advertising in a game that also asks for in app purchase. This is beyond annoying and really makes the game irritating to play.

Nina Hero Cats has little gameplay variation. It’s really the same thing over and over again in each level. It is excessively easy and it gets dull rather quickly. The game is best in short bursts.